If Gods Were Lazy
by Claytonimor
Summary: Reach burned, as the atmosphere ionized and the oceans evaporated, Noble Six discovered a way out. She took it, and now she has a different enemy to face, with a different team in a different universe altogether. M for safety and language(Re-writing)(Chapter 1 rewrite up [newcomers, please, for the love of all things holy, don't read past that])
1. Chapter 1

My Halo: Reach/Mass Effect 2 cross-over

Stats:

Noble 6: Female, 6'8" (The rest is in story [well, this is too, but I digress])

Alexander Shepard: Male, 5'11", generic male Shepard face, Paragon, Colonist, War Hero, Soldier

(God this is the laziest bio I've ever seen…I'm so proud of myself)

At any rate, here is the rewrite I've been promising….mostly because I know the first few chapters (who am I kidding, _all_ of the chapters) suck.

**Disclaimer: Bungie owns Halo…or is it 343 industries now…whatever, and Bioware owns Mass Effect. Any resemblances to actual people or events are purely coincidental.**

_(Any discrepancies between this and canon is because I did little to no research, please, for the love of god, correct me where I'm wrong)_

* * *

Noble Six's feelings towards the alien bastards trying to kill her, otherwise known as the Covenant, could be summed up into three words: absolutely fucking despise. Any normal person would have been perfectly happy with giving his or her life to let the last hope of mankind slip away unharmed. A really angry person would have been happy with fighting off wave after wave of Covenant forces as they surrounded his or her position. But no, it took a crazy-as-shit pissed off mother of a person to fight those waves to their very end and then beat the living hell out of the last few elites with his or her bare hands. Noble Six belonged to the third group. That's what happens when you kill off every member of a SPARTAN's squad, but the Covenant just doesn't seem to learn.

She took her hands off the throat of the newly-dead Elite, the bastard had tried to stab her when she was down, and took a look around. The world was not made of glass and a helluva lot of dead covenant surrounded her. Besides the whole "everyone you've ever loved is gone" deal, she was having a great time. However, she felt strangely naked without her helmet on, why had she taken it off again? She spotted it next to a few jackals with holes in places where holes were not meant to be, namely faces, torsos, and other pieces of the anatomy where a bullet just really ruins your day. Glancing about for hostiles one last time and finding none, she jogged over to it, the sand crunching beneath her armored feet, and rolled a dead jackal away with her foot before leaning over to grab it. As she reached down to grab her helmet, she saw all the spider web of cracks down its polarized faceplate and remembered why she had taken it off in the first place, _fuckin' Coveys_. Still, she picked it up, it was a personal thing, and began walking north, the helmet under her arm. She had no place to go. The directions to CASTLE base had been on the helmet, and that couldn't help her unless she found a computer that wasn't fried by all the radiation and EMP's thrown around the planet over the last few weeks, which was so fucking improbable it might as well be impossible. In such a situation, however, there was one directive left for her to follow:

**Kill as many alien bastards as possible.**

She sighed and looked around for a target, a nice, big, juicy target…sorta like that Covenant cruiser just sitting out in the middle of nothingness for no reason…yeah, just like that cruiser. Doing a quick three-sixty, it looked like the cruiser was her best chance at a fulfilling end of a murder filled day, a huge-ass bang. She only paused once to pick up a plasma rifle that one of the elites had been so kind as to not fire before she stabbed him in the eye…repetitively. She wasn't the "Hyper Lethal Vector" for nothing

Her stores now as full as she cared to make them, she set off to bust some heads…and maybe blow up a ship…or both.

* * *

Shepard was having a good day comparatively. That is not, of course, saying much. Of course, compared to a couple of weeks ago, when he had been dead, it was hard to complain. Sure, he had rescued Tali from Haestrom and he had been reinstated as a Spectre, but everything else had been absolute bloody hell. Joker wouldn't stop whining about EDI, Garrus always had to do some "calibrations" or whatever it was that Turians called their special alone time, Mordin would not SHUT THE HELL UP, Jack and Miranda would have killed each other by now if he hadn't stepped in on their catfight, a certain super-thief was taking minor objects from crew members for fun, and a psychotic Krogan lived next to the ship's engines. He really wanted to just scream, to punch something, to break one of Joker's legs, anything! But noooooo, he was the calm cool and collected Commander Shepard, savior of the Citadel and the council. He had stood against the Skyllian Blitz and not even broken a drop of sweat. He had hunted down the rouge Spectre Saren and stopped him from destroying all the races of the galaxy. Hell, he had even made hot alien love to Liara. He could do anything.

The last accomplishment gave him pause. He sighed at lost love and rolled off the bed in his quarters. He washed off his face and composed himself before he stepped onto the elevator and went down to CIC. After a brief wait and a ping, the door opened. As he was stepping off the elevator he heard over the intercom, "Hey, Shepard, you're gonna want to see this…"

"Joker, this better be good," he responded, lifting an eyebrow (more for the sake of the motion itself rather than to actually send a message to Joker).

"Oh, this is beyond good, this looks like we could have another giant baby Krogan…in space!"

"Joker..."

"No! I'm serious! What else would you store in a space tube? Huh? Doughnuts? ... Mmmmmmm doughnuts"

Shepard ignored the comment and, after sighing in exasperation, walked up to the bridge. His brittle-boned pilot was practically giddy.

"Look at the sensors, Commander. Some crazy-ass alien alloy, a glass-ish facing, glowing blue lines…mildly creepy, and, whatever is in it, has got a heartbeat!" His pilot was going to break a rib at this rate. However…it was interesting. There was no reason for anything to just be floating in the space around Noveria. Hell, he hadn't expected anything at least. He had just wanted to stare at the planet from space and strip mine the bloody place while rubbing his hands together and whispering about "Revenge at last", however, he was Commander Shepard, and nothing ever came easily.

"Bring it in Joker, and hope we don't have another crazy," Shepard practically prayed, not that it would do him much good; gods don't listen to dead men, and what he was bring on board couldn't have been further from his hopes.

EDI piped up, "Commander Shepard, the life signatures on the pod match no known databases, though some of the symbols used resemble ancient human writings."

Shepard looked over at the AI, her hologram lighting the cockpit, "How ancient are we talking here?"

This time Joker cut in, "Pre-Egyptian at least, and probably before the major Tigris and Euphrates civilizations as well, practically older than dirt."

Shepard cursed, "Well, let's hope this isn't going to be _another_ massive archaeological discovery, Ilos was enough for me," Shepard paused for a moment before shrugging and continued, "Bring it aboard EDI, I'll go down and meet our new…guest."

* * *

Shepard asked Miranda to help him greet whatever is was he was bringing aboard. In hindsight, Jacob or Tali would have been better choices.

She glanced at him angrily, "Shepard, we have enough variables to deal with as it is, why in the hell makes you think that this… 'discovery' will be anything positive?"

He sighed, thinking for a moment, before he responded, "I would have thought that saving your sister might make you trust my decisions more, Miranda." Who cares if it made him look like a dick? Considering what exactly on Illium the last time the Normandy had stopped there, she deserved it.

Meanwhile at Miranda, if looks could kill, Shepard had just cost Cerberus another several billion to rebuild him. She continued, "You lucked out with the Krogan, in that he is bloodthirsty and loyal, there is nothing to say that whatever we find in this pod will have redeeming qualities."

Shepard sighed as the elevator's doors opened and they walked across the bay towards the metal construct, blue lines glowing across its frame. "There are also no guarantees that whatever we find in this will be a detriment to the team." he offered, hopefully.

Miranda sighed, "I'm not going to stop you Shepard, but please think of the possible consequences first."

The pair stopped in front of the pod, the blue light emitting from in between the white plates of the unit flickering softly as a holographic panel opened in the air in front of Shepard.

Surprised, Shepard reached to manipulate the panel, but was confused when waving his hand over the symbols didn't do anything. Miranda just sighed and tried to look through the frosted glass that hid the contents of the pod.

Finally, Shepard grew frustrated and tried to just punch the hologram, but was immensely surprised when his fist met a solid surface. Shepard muttered, "Shit, hardlight?" before looking back at the panel and, more specifically, the flashing symbol that he had obviously hit.

Miranda jumped back when steam erupted from the pod and, with a deep _clunk_, the bottom of the pod released itself.

After a short wait, EDI broke in, "Commander Shepard, neural activity of the subject has spiked. It is in pain."

Shepard cursed; he had hoped that whatever he had hit wouldn't kill the creature, but, considering it was obviously a cryo-stasis type of pod, that was highly unlikely. If whatever it was didn't have time to thaw out properly before it was let out…he could only hope that whatever it was, it could withstand the kind of pain it was going through long enough for him to apologies.

Finally, the hissing of steam being released ended and the facing rose up and out, revealing the contents of the pod.

Miranda could only manage, "My God."

Inside, eyes open and with small crystals of ice around its body, was an armored giant. Plates of gunmetal grey on a black under-suit shifted and the giant reached out and grabbed the edges of the container before pulling itself out and landing with a thud onto the deck, buckling it slightly. It rolled its shoulders and freed up its other joints before reaching back into the tube and grabbing a helmet with a shattered faceplate. As it turned back around, Shepard realized that he hadn't even looked at the monster's face. Slowly, he let his eyes scan up the creature.

From its heavy boots to the hip poach that looked to contain_ was that a kukri?_ He let his eyes go up to its torso and the multitude of pouches strapped across its abdomen. Finally, his eyes reached its face.

It had short red hair, only two and a half centimeters tops, and pale blue eyes. Its skin was practically snow white and it...was human!

It let its eyes roam the room for a moment before Shepard found himself pinned by its gaze. It moved to speak.

"Noble Six, Lieutenant, SPARTAN B312."

Its voice was markedly feminine, and now that he realized it, the suit had...curves…in what some may call "all the right places". Shepard quickly recovered himself as he heard Miranda make a sound of disapproval. He sighed and looked back up at its...no, at her, face, before replying, "I'm Commander Alexander Shepard, Captain of the Normandy SR2, the vessel we are currently on."

She snapped a quick salute before Shepard waved it away, as quickly as possible. He thought, _She's military, no doubt about that,_ and looked her up and down one more time, taking in all he could of the, admittedly attractive (in the way that a snake it [look but don't touch]) super-soldier (for what else could she be). He finally collected himself and looked back up into her face before asking, "So...any idea how you ended up in a cryo pod in the middle of nowhere?"

* * *

**Yaaaaaay! Rewrite done! How you guys feel 'bout the new shit? Is it shinier than the previous turd? I must know! Should I keep up the re-write? Do you like the new additions? Am I the only one who thinks hardlight is possibly the coolest shit ever? R & R please!**


	2. Chapter 2

Well…here you go, yet another chapter to this crazy freaking story. In this chapter, I decided against this being a flashback chapter and instead decided it would be perfectly fine if I just took it right from the previous chapter, only from Six's perspective now…so…here you go. Oh, and thanks for the reviews…they made me…not procrastinate? Yeah….not procrastinate. Oh and the pod is like that first one from halo, the one they stored John-117 in on the Pillar of Autumn. Also, I'm not confident in this chapter, it seemed blocky and rough to me.

BTW. Six's armor is this: Operator Helmet w/Command Network Module, Recon Shoulder pads, Tactical/Recon Chest storage, Tacpad, Silver Visor, FJ/ Para knee-guards, with a black rose as the emblem...and its gunmetal grey...

**Disclaimer: These 2 games belong to their respective companies, not me. If anyone and anything in real life is similar to people, places, or events in this work of fiction, then that is simply a coincidence…and nothing more…absolutely no convoluted scheme to take over the world here, just keep walking.**

* * *

Noble Six looked down at the man in front of her. His armor was something foreign to her, it didn't even look like it had any titanium-A in it. But he had scars, in particular one that seemed to glow around his cheeks and chin, so he knew battle, at least. She didn't recognize him from any of the officer dossiers she had seen over the years, and he didn't look insurrection, not to mentions that he was a superior officer as far as she knew, so, she would have to answer the question somehow. However, what had really happened would probably get her thrown in a psych ward. She barely believed it herself, and she had been there. Not to mention that the brunette woman a few feet behind him looked like she was ready to throw her out the airlock as it was, and, with a broken helmet, it didn't matter that the suit had been able to refill its oxygen supply while on board. She flexed her right hand, trying to melt the freezer-burn. "I have no idea, sir," she managed not to grimace with the pain in her, well, everything. She noticed the man, Shepard, grimace at the "sir". She glanced at the woman before saying,"Sir, are you uncomfortable with being referred to as sir?"

Shepard looked her up and down another time, and said,"I'm technically not a 'sir' anymore, I died."

She blinked a couple of times before settling out of attention even further. She looked him up and down, now much more curious about those scars and managed,"Oh."

Shepard motioned for her to sit and she replied truthfully,"I would break any furniture you have."

Shepard just pointed at the cryo pod and motioned again. She conceded and sat on the edge of the pod, setting the helmet down on the floor with a heavy thud. He looked at the helmet briefly before turning to the woman and saying,"Miranda, go get everyone. Yes, everyone. Jack included. They need to see this."She had tried to interrupt him, but he had answered her question before it was voiced. The brunette woman scowled and turned on her heel, walking back towards what Six could only assume was an elevator.

Shepard turned back to her and met her eyes with his. They held that gaze and the tension was palpable. He slowly motioned towards her with his hand and said, his voice even with no hint of emotion,"So, what exactly is a SPARTAN? I haven't heard of those before? Some secret project?"

Six was taken aback for a moment, everyone knew what a SPARTAN was, before she composed herself and said,"Yeah, the ONI spooks were really tight-lipped on the whole thing. Hell, they had to be, they didn't want the facility to be found by the Covenant. Though, I was sure most of the UNSC got to find out about us..."

After she said that, Shepard's face betrayed a moment of confusion. He shook it off and said, with a tinge of confusion in his voice,"What, exactly, is ONI, the Covenant, and the UNSC?"

Six's eyes widened, _How in the hell could he not know?_, and she had the wait a couple of minutes before she had composed herself enough to respond with a confusion laced voice,"Ummm, sir," he flinched, but she couldn't help herself,"those are the Office of Naval Intelligence, a religious conglomerate of aliens bent on humanity's destruction, and the United Nations Space Command, respectively."

Shepard nodded his head slowly before saying,"Now, one more thing, what, would you do, metaphorically, if I were to say that those things don't exist?"

Six narrowed her eyes,"Metaphorically, I would be forced to ask for proof and then provide whatever assistance to humanity I could, should they be proven to have been false."

Shepard nodded and then looked her in the eyes once more,"Well, then I guess I should show you the proof then?"

"You damn well better. I know where I was, who I fought, and who my allies were."

Shepard just nodded as the elevator behind him binged and opened to...aliens...a lot of them. Six dashed forward, grabbing for Emile's kukri, which she had kept in a thigh compartment. In a matter of moments, she had an alien with mandibles pinned by a knife to his throat and the rest held under a steady gaze. Garrus, for who else could it be, simply glanced up at her face and then down at the kukri before looking at Shepard and saying,"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this is what you wanted us to see." Six felt a bit of pressure on her abdomen and glanced down to see a pistol right up against the armor, on the weave, not the plates. She glanced to the side and was greeted by 7 barrels pointed towards her.

Shepard called out," Unless you want to die before you explain yourself, then put my friend down."

Six hesitated for a moment, and then set the avian alien back down and shoved the kukri back into the thigh compartment. Garrus's mandibles twitched for a moment and Six had to harness all of her willpower to stop herself from caving in the Turian's face with a punch. Garrus casually got away from her before calling out to Shepard,"You know, Shepard, it would be nice, if, just once, someone on this ship didn't want to kill someone else on this ship. Though, I guess it's good that I get to have a rival now."

Six was briefly reminded of Elites by this alien, it had mandibles. Other than that, she had no reason to hate it; it was more avian than reptilian and its legs were too small, not to mention that an Elite's face wasn't hardened like this creature's was. She examined him as the others moved closer and Shepard walked up from behind. Garrus glanced over her shoulder at him, clearly aware that she was looking him up and down. He gloated,"Shepard, I apologize, it seems my charms have snatched another beautiful lady from you."

Shepard was about to reply when Six asked,"What are you?"

Everyone just stopped. They all knew Garrus was a Turian; anyone would know Garrus was a Turian. Garrus was the first to reply,"I'm gonna go with, you've never seen a Turian before."

Noble Six just shook her head and restated,"Well, what's a Turian?"

That shut up everyone. After about 20 seconds of silence, a blue...ball...thing popped out of a terminal to her right. "Turians are a race of dextro-amino acid based aliens originating on the radiation-bathed planet of Pavalen, they serve as the militant arm of the council. Does that answer your question, Six?"

Six just glanced over, saw the familiar stand, and smiled," Yes ma'am, suppose I'll have a few more questions before all this is over though. Thanks for the info..."

"EDI."

"Well EDI, thanks," six finished as the hologram disappeared. She turned back to Sheppard, who now had a thoroughly confused look on his face and said,"Your ship-board AI seems nice enough, and I don't see any way off this vessel other than being spaced, and getting shot doesn't exactly appeal to me," she glanced over at the group, their guns still pointed her way," so I guess I'll cooperate with you for now, Commander."

Shepard was a little taken aback,"Just like that?"

One of the group to her right, female by way of mammary glands and in a full environmental suit, piped up,"I don't trust her Shepard," she waved back towards Six,"How was she able to find out EDI so quickly," if the lights behind the faceplate were her eyes, then she was narrowing them in suspicion," and why wasn't she surprised?"

Six turned her head to the side, as if very confused about something, before looking the suited alien in the eyes and responded,"Don't all spacecraft have shipboard AI? Why would I be surprised?"

Tali, it had to be her, took a step back and let out an angry,"No way would every ship have an AI! Those bosh'tets would kill every living thing if they had the chance to!"

Everyone seemed to nod in agreement, even Shepard! At this, Six was more confused then she had ever been before. She had been about to retort to the creature, but then she noticed a few things. One: the woman from before and a woman covered in tattoos and not much else had a blue field about them. Two: their weapons had barrels much to small for traditional bullets. And three: the design of the room they were in was rather...graceful, like a covenant ship, only not purple. She turned back to Shepard, ignoring Tali, and asked,"Ummm, Shepard, would you mind telling me something?"

He shook out his jumble of emotions and thoughts and answered,"Sure, six. What is it?"

She rubbed the back of her neck and said,"Well...how do I put this...ummm, what year is it?"

Shepard lifts an eyebrow and says, nonchalantly,"2185, why do you ask?"

Six stopped rubbing her neck and looks back down at Shepard, she frowns and says,"Because where I'm from, it's 2552, that's why."

Shepard stopped and, after a moment, waved to Miranda and said, take them back up, this conversation needs to be private."

Miranda glanced over to the heavily-armored woman and said,"Sure, commander," before turning to the others and waving them back inside. Tali paused for a moment and narrowed her eyes again before walking on and a large reptilian alien with a hump, Grunt of course, looked her up and down before grinning and punching his hand into the other. Grunt then walked back onto the elevator, followed by Miranda, who shut the door. Shepard looked back at her and said, quite plainly,"Impossible."

Six looked him right back into the eye and said,"In 2185, we hadn't even left the solar system yet. So you,re the impossible one."

As the two of them wondered about the sanity of the other, EDI chimed in,"Commander, I have a theory about this."

Shepard didn't even break his stare,"Give it to me, EDI."

EDI continued, ignoring the glance from the SPARTAN,"It is possible that Noble Six is from another...universe...altogether. Albeit a very similar one. It has been theorized that their are infinitely many separate universes, each with some distinct difference from our own. The further the universe's "bubble" is from ours, the more different it is, as it were."

Six's shoulders relaxed, that theory fit with everything that she had observed, not to mention what that forerunner artifact had said to her before she got into the damn cryo pod,_"Your potential is wasted here, Reclaimer. This planet has fallen. With this machine, you will be sent where you are needed most, fret not for your fallen comrades."_ Prick. She broke the stare and looked over at EDI before confirming,"That theory fits with my knowledge. Always wondered what I would do if ONI hadn't picked me up," she back at Shepard and broke into a grin,"Now, while I grapple with being in a different reality, I could really go for some..." The rest of the sentence was cut off as Six fell flat onto her face, a small pool of blood spreading out from her neckguard.

Shepard ran up to her and placed his hand against her carotid artery, checking for a pulse. After confirming one he tried to pull her, and was suprised to find he couldn't make her budge. He called to EDI,"Get Grunt, I'm going to need help moving her to the med bay.

* * *

**Well…there you go…Chapter 2 in all its glory…wonderful, wasn't it? Ah! Before I forget…how much should a Spartan weigh outside the armor? I know it is half a ton in it, but I couldn't find their weight without it. Oh, and what do you think about six keeping her helmet, I know it was still on Reach…but it's a symbolic thing, you know? Oh, and does anyone care If I refer to the Covenant Species with their call-signs and not their actual species names? You know, like Grunt instead of Uggnoy and Brute instead of Jiralhanae.**


	3. Chapter 3

Oh god! What do I do! What attaches those plates of Titanium A to the under-weave of titanium A? I don't know!...I'm just gonna BS my way through this until a reviewer comes along with the answer. Then...rewrite...JUST KIDDING! God, you should of seen your face. I actually plan on depriving Six of all her advantages besides her augmentations, including her armor...but not the helmet. It's not that I hate seeing a spartan unleash super omega death upon all his or her enemies, it's just that I don't want to take a side in the "are Halo or Mass Effect shields better?" argument. So, sorry if you are going to be disappointed by what is coming.

Oh and I found out something today. It turns out that the ceramics we already use in our body armor are highly resistant to plasma...so...damn...we beat the Covenant...just give us another 511 years to make it better. Plus the stuff on the front of the now-defunct space shuttle was designed to dissipate the plasma encountered when entering the atmosphere and I don't ever remember those melting on re-entry...

I've also been bothered by other fanfics on this topic. Plasma has kinetic energy. So why wouldn't the kinetic shields stop it?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. You see that homeless man on the street? He is to large sums of money as I am to the contents of this fanfiction...well, except for the appearance of Six, if Bungie, Microsoft, and 343 don't want us to see her face, then dammit I'm taking it!**

* * *

Doctor Karin Chakwas had seen a lot in her days as an Alliance medic, and even more as a Cerberus one, but nothing was able to prepare her for the half-ton of wounded warrior that was now in her hands, so to speak. It turned out to be a she, as Shepard had explained, but he had left it rather vague beyond that. She just prayed she didn't have another Garrus on her hands. One suicidal vigilante was enough as far as she was concerned. _First things first,_ the thought and looked back down at the heavily armored woman and looked for a place to remove the armor.

After breaking three drills against various parts of the armor itself, Chakwas had found the various bolts holding the exoskeleton to itself. Unfortunately, they appeared to me magnetically locked to the frame, not that it would have helped to get the plates off, the inner weave had also broken her drill. At that moment, Chakwas noticed that, around Six's stomach, under all the pouches she had on her chest, the black under-weave seemed cracked and broken, burned even. She took one last look at the broken drills next to her and grabbed a scalpel. She slowly reached down and placed her hand on the broken area to steady herself as she would try to cut out that section, only to have it squelch under her hand. Chakwas was no rookie medic, but the noise it made had been, quite frankly, the most disgusting thing she had ever heard. She looked at the glove bound hand that had caused the noise and noticed that it was, well, covered in blood. She looked back down to where she had placed her hand and saw that the black under-weave had crumbled beneath her hand and revealed the skin underneath. It was at least burned in the second degree and Chakwas quickly applied medigel, glad that she could just insert it into the new hole and fill the charred region. She was curious as to what could have burned clear through the highly-resistant weave. However, she was a professional and could wait until the patient awakened for her to ask the questions. And...now that she had an access point...Chakwas decided she should run a few tests.

* * *

Shepard, meanwhile, was next to Joker again, downloading the "codex" EDI had designed for the inter-dimensional traveler. The helmsman turned to Shepard and, with a grin on his face, joked," Hey, Shepard, when you got Kasumi on board, I figured we had about as exciting and exotic as humans got, but next thing I hear is that you managed to grab a girl from another universe all together!"

Shepard just shook his head, sighed and replied,"Joker, don't."

Joker, his grin widening as his impending victory, thrusted,"Oh wait, I'm sorry. I remember you were praying you wouldn't get another crazy, guess you can't win 'em all."

Shepard opened his mouth to retaliate when the comm chimed and Chakwas's voice called up,"Commander, I'm getting some interesting readings on the woman you brought, and well...you need to see these. Come as soon as possible."

Shepard sighed and, now that the download was complete, he had no excuse to delay seeing the...LT...again. As he turned to head down to the med-bay, Joker quipped one last time,"Commander, make sure she isn't any where near Grunt, their introductions to the crew were eerily similar...wonder if they are distant space cousins..." Shepard just shook his head one last time and made his way to the crew deck.

* * *

When Shepard opened the door to the med-bay, he was, quite simply, shocked by the scene before him. Six, oddly enough, no longer had armor on (He asked Chakwas later, all she said was something about controlled heat), and was only in a skin-tight black one-piece. The plates from the armor, now separated, lay in a pile next to the table Six was on. Chakwas was leaning over her stomach and applying some medigel very carefully.

When he walked in, Chakwas looked up for half a second, told him to ,"Wait a moment," and finished applying the medigel before walking over to him and pulling him towards her desk. She took a seat and turned to face him, her fingers steepled. She glanced up at him and asked, her voice icy,"Commander, what happened to her?"

Shepard raised and eyebrow and, waving his hand vaguely towards the now-still woman, replied,"I was hoping you could shed some light on that particular matter."

The doctor repeated his gesture and said,"As to why she collapsed, she had second-degree burns over most of her torso and patches in other spots. There was a cauterized wound on her left collarbone and one through her right forearm. I'm amazed she stayed conscious as long as she did. However, those wounds pale in comparison to the rest of them."

"The rest of them?"

"Yes Commander," Chakwas rubbed her temples with one hand before continuing,"From what I've seen so far, she shouldn't be alive. She has extensive scarring along her left arm and a couple of replaced digits. Plus, If the wounds on her torso are even partially true, she has been shot through both of her lungs and once nearly grazing her heart, not to mention the mass of what I assume are old burn wounds and traces of blunt force trauma. Another thing that had me worried are her scans," Chakwas took a second to glance at the woman, who was semi-conscious, before looking back at Shepard, "Her body is practically floating in artificial chemicals that, as far as I can tell, strengthen her bones, enhance her reflexes, and make her musculature much more dense than the average human…They also seem to have done something with her brainwaves, but the patterns only suggest so much and, until she wakes up, I can only speculate. Nothing "illegal" as far as enhancements go, but someone, somewhere poured millions into her, if not more."

Shepard was a little shocked by these readings. Sure, he could imagine a certain organization that would do something like this, but if that was the case, then the Illusive Man would have tried to gloat. The time was approaching when EDI's theory would be the only relevant one. And, as Sherlock had said, when all other options have been removed, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth. Shepard then caught something on her helmet from the corner of his eye.

He turned to the headpiece and looked on its right side and, as he had thought, there was a camera. It was old, and in disrepair, but maybe someone could salvage it, that would put an end to all argument on either side. He glanced back at Chakwas, who had made her way back to the patient and was busy her legs and frowning, before heaving the helmet into a two-handed grip and making his way to the elevator. He may not be able to salvage it, but her damn well knew someone who could. He was positive Tali would have a good time with it too.

* * *

Tali had been most forthcoming after he had show her what he was planning. She simply nodded and set about opening the thing. After cracking it, it had taken her moments to find the memory core and adapt the tiny device for the viewing studio in the conference room. After a little bit of a celebration at managing to adapt the little device (how did they make a chip so small) he called a few of the crew for the viewing. He had decided that only he, Mordin, Garrus, and Tali would see the thing at first. No doubt Miranda and Kasumi would find a way to see it later and he doubted Grunt, Jacob, or Jack would have really cared. He knew Tali would just love to see what she had helped to uncover. He was positive Garrus was still curious as to why the woman had charged him first, and how she had succeeded, it had probably hurt his pride. And he was positive that, while he may regret it later, Mordin would be the best after EDI , who was always watching, for analyzing the chips contents. So he plugged in the chip and pressed play.

What they saw damn near took their breath away.

* * *

**Damn...a short one huh...and lacking in the comedic zone. Oh well, the next one up will be showing the video (all the way from fighting the Insurrection to the end of Reach) in all of its insane glory. I could really use some more reviews and maybe some suggestions to extend this chapter to more than 2000 words.**

**Gah! Okay my peeps. To confirm something. Six did, in fact, fight other humans. I would like to point out her stint as a lone-wolf and assassin before joining Noble Team on Reach. For confirmation here is a quote from the Halo Wiki: "Over the course of B312's career, the SPARTAN gained a reputation as an efficient lone-wolf assassin, having single-handedly broken organizations and made entire militia groups disappear." And I doubt the Covenant had militia groups. Not to mention that the Insurrection clearly still existed by 2552, citing the first mission in Halo: Reach.**


	4. Chapter 4

I get the awful feeling that I screwed up somehow. Mind you all, I am not reversing my position on Six's armor. Pieces of it may get integrated into her new suit, but I'm not gonna give her back the Mk V.

At any rate, this chapter is entirely a flashback one and the longest one...Six will be unconscious for all of this and will likely get up in the next chapter, where I will smooth over her transition into the team. After that chapter is her first mission. I know that it's taking a while, but I'll try to put enough action in here to satisfy your violent urges. Ah, and I would like to publically thank Carleen for aiding me in...well...everything. I'll try not to disappoint you guys any further.

Also...quick question for all you guys. How often do you want updates? I mean, I've been trying for one around every week, but with finals and AP tests approaching I'm not really doing homework for school anymore, so I could get it done quicker if I really, really try hard. What do you guys think? Should I? Or would it degrade my performance?

**Disclaimer: None of what is to follow is mine. Shepard used to be mine, but he rebelled against my rule and moved to Bioware, damn traitor.**

* * *

The conference room's lights dimmed as display typically used for a model of the Normandy was replaced by a screen. After a brief moment of fuzz the camera resolved and...

* * *

_Six (_as she would come to be called_) glanced though her Battle rifle's scope one last time to make sure it was properly set up for shots at 50 yards. There would be hell to pay if she missed that first burst. She glanced around the cabin, curious as to why she had finally been given Mjolnir Mk V for this mission instead of the usual SPI stuff, and only managed to worry the only other occupant of the Pelican. She saw the pilot glance back several times to the mostly empty cargo bay before he managed, in a voice that could only be described as part terrified and part relieved,"ETA in five, ma'am."_

_Six simply nodded and looked at the dossier had commanding officer had given her. She was supposed to infiltrate some backwater Insurrection compound and capture their commanding officer. Her commander had told her that they wonted to crush the last bits of the Insurrection so they could focus fully on the Covenant threat. At the thought of those alien bastards, she gripped her BR even more tightly. She, too, wanted to get to grips with the real threat, not these short-sighted bastards who couldn't even grasp that they faced a species-wide threat and undercut the UNSC war effort._

_The pelican reached a small clearing and the pilot held up his left hand to wave back at the Spartan before dropping both her and the only other payload on the dropship, a M274 ULATV Mongoose. At the Pelican lifted up and away, Six glanced back over the dossier one more time. She had three days to get to the exfil two townships over, in someplace called New Edo. Not wanting to waste her time, Six jumped onto the Mongoose and sped towards the south._

_After possibly an hour (_most of which Shepard fast-forwarded through_) of driving, Six cut the engines to the Mongoose and began to crawl through the thickening underbrush. As she made her final push through the underbrush, she just managed to stop before a huge clearing. In the middle, surrounded by heavy AA emplacements, bunkers, and patrolling vehicles (there was even a bloody Scorpion! The hell do rebels get ahold of that!) was the rebel base. Prefab barracks and mess halls ringed the outside of the of the camp with drill yards just a bit further in than them. Off to the west, there was an airpad , while to the East, they had an arsenal. Finally, standing tall in the middle of the camp, was what could only be described as a heavily armored office building. That had to be the target's location, however, the base had to at least have a couple hundred soldiers, Six couldn't just rush in. She settled in for a long watch, grabbing a silencer from the Mongoose before observing patrol patterns and the like._

* * *

It had taken Shepard and the others a few seconds to realize what this was. More importantly, none of the tech on the film (other than the existence of prefab) looked like the stuff he had seen in his journey around the galaxy. He was more than a little shocked and much less skeptical of EDI's idea. Mordin's eyes perked up at what he saw and Shepard had to shoot him a glance before he could go off on a tangent. Tali would have spoken up as well, but Garrus put a finger to his...beak?...in a shushing maneuver before he and Shepard turned back to the scene before them.

* * *

_Six had stayed watch all the way through the night. At one point she hummed an oldie, something called "We Didn't Start the Fire" to entertain herself while watching the campfires being lit. As dawn broke the sky and with the changing of the guard, she made her move._

_The guard was bored. He had another 30 minutes before the guard change and he had been awake for most of the night. Six granted him a mercy and allowed him to sleep permanently. As his body slumped, his head flopping to one side, she caught him and lowered him slowly before moving further into the base, straight for the airpad. If it were not just before the guard change (they happened every 8 hours) she would have been noticed. However, the rebels were rather tired, and they were just barely above civilian level when it came to professionalism. She even managed to take a couple Targets of Opportunity. Finally, she reached the airpad. She only had to wait a few moments before a patrolling Falcon came back for maintenance. Six's sigh was the first noise she had made in 12 hours. She gave it when three others walked into the airpad and began talking to the pilot. She moved quickly behind a set of crates when another man showed up, this one began to check the craft for defects. Six, seeing that all five were occupied, made her move._

_The mechanic was shot in the back of the head with a silent burst and his head popped like a...head that had been shot by three bullets at once. The second man to die had turned to investigate the sound of the the mechanic's head-pieces hitting metal to find his chest caved in by a punch Six had thrown. The third man to die was the pilot, who had been talking just moment before a knife had seemed to just appear, sticking out of the side of his head. The fourth man reacted quickly, trying to pull out his gun, before taking a burst through his neck, severing his spine. The last man fainted, bubbling at the mouth. A heavy boot crushed his head. Six giggled a little and muttered,"Squish."_

* * *

Shepard and the others were almost sick. Tali Shook her head and muttered, "Kee'lah," obviously disturbed by the sight of grey matter and blood spraying everywhere, modern weapons were much more clean. Garrus seemed a little awed, if his wide eyes and flapping mandibles were any clue. Then again, he, too, could have been holding back sickness, but that was unlikely considering what he had seen from a certain Dr. Heart. Shepard simply closed his eyes for a moment, faintly unwell, before looking back to the screen.

* * *

_Six dragged the dead pilot's corpse into the back of the falcon and strapped it in like the other four. She then made her way to the pilot's seat and took off, glad that she had watched the flight patterns earlier, and began to circle the base. She did it twice before slowly, casually even, angling the aircraft towards the central building. No eyes looked up at the Falcon, it had been circling the base for so long that it felt as if it was some kind of permanent fixture in their lives. Its rotors drew no attention as they cut out and landed the vehicle, with a slight clunk, on the roof of the main building._

_She climbed out of the vehicle almost lethargically, as if she was regretting leaving it. She sighed once more before walking calmly to the side of the building. She didn't want to have to enter this way, but there was no roof access. Six jumped over the meager railing before catching the edge of the edge of the building with her hand and using the rapid shift in momentum to swing back and through the thin metal wall between her and the interior of the HQ. The fact that she had shot through it a few times on the way down with her BR may have helped her get through as well. _

_After she was through, she noticed the body of a man she had landed on. Then she realized where she was. Seven people ringed the table in front of her. Three guard had positions at the other corners of the room. The fourth corner, and its guard, were under her. The three guard swiftly lifted their rifles, not in the least bit fazed, and opened fire. _

* * *

What followed was too quick for Shepard to really understand. All he got was that she had somehow ended up dragging an unconscious man back out to the hole in the wall, tossing him up and swiftly following suit herself before they hauled their collective asses to avoid being blown out of the sky. Mordin couldn't hold it in any longer and managed out,"Interesting technology. Could have huge impact. Curious as to how weapons function. Wonder if sample in...," before Shepard shot him again with the legendary "I could go Renegade at any time" look and Mordin shut his mouth. Shepard finished the glare and turned back to the screen.

They read, "Fast-Forwarding...please wait...please wait...uploading now...," and then the screen then resolved into...

* * *

_The deep blackness of space was all that was seen. Then, the view went down and a panel of old, physical controls were shown. Armored hands reached for them before the view went back up and to the left, revealing the massive battle taking place. Violet fighters and gunships bore down on a docking station and various guns and angular fighters tried to stop them._ _The fighter (for what else could it be) that Six (for who else could it be) was in swiftly turned and angled itself towards the dogfight._

_ In a series of disorienting 3D turns and loops, the fighter managed to blast away 3 of the smaller fighters and unleash a hail of missiles into a gunship, destroying it. She then quickly banked to the right and down, flipping over completely and coming back up behind a Banshee (for...once again...what else could it be). A quick blast of the cannon reduced it to little more than so much smoldering metal. Men yelled and whooped for their own kills in the background.  
_

_After blasting away the last of the gunships with her missiles, Six peeled away towards the station and berthed the ship in the middle hangar bay. A voice, deep (meaning the owner was probably big) and with a distinctly...Hungarian?...accent spoke up for the first time on the video,"I'm out here, Six." _

_Another voice, female and obviously automated, interrupted him with,"Warning, M-Spec re-entry pack disengaged."_

_The previous voice continued,"I need your override."_

_A rapid hiss of freed air air sounded, cutting off the automated voice and she finished with,"Cockpit depressurization complete, canopy release lever armed". Six reached over and, pulling a latch, freed the canopy to go forward. A large shadow passed over her and she turned and regarded a swiftly receding armored shape before a voice, male and human this time, say,"Bravo two-niner you are clear to engage thrusters."_

_She began closing the canopy and freeing the fighter from its berth when another voice, more experienced sounding, said,"Noble Six, this is Holland."_

_After a moment of free-floating, Six replied,"Go ahead colonel," the fighter turned again and the previous voice continued,"We've flagged a corvette-class vessel on a predicted docking track with our target. Get our make-shift bomb on that corvette...and we have our delivery system. Noble Five will escort the bomb, I need your Saber team to clear the way for boarding." _

_Six nodded and replied,"Understood Colonel."_

_The other voice, probably shrugging, finished with,"As she has already donated her slipspace drive to the cause, the Savannah with be joining you to provide local fire support."_

_A new voice, obviously from the Savannah, called out,"UNSC Savannah, our wings may be clipped, but we got your back."_

_The colonel, probably rubbing his temples, warned,"I've stuck my neck out for Noble on this one, Lieutenant."  
_

_Six, pulling his fighter into formation and peeling away from the docking station with the huge vessel (_It was at least the length of the Destiny Ascension! Even if it was not as wide, that's damn impressive, even if it is blocky and angular to the extreme._) sped off across space._

_Soon enough, the formation came across the graceful violet arches and curves of the Covenant corvette. The voices came over the line again, but Six quickly shut off her helmet's com, confining the various orders and bit of advice that were coming over to a source she could ignore. Which she promptly did._

_Instead of hunting fighters like the rest of her squadron, she angled her fighter towards the rear of the corvette and began to unleash barrage after barrage of missiles until what had been four engines were turned into so much radioactive slag. She then banked away and began to strafe the gun batteries on the port side of the vessel before she had to roll away and focus on the fighters and gunships that had begun to focus on her fighter. Then, just as she finished shooting a Banshee into kingdom come, another wave of enemy fighter craft showed up. She would have wondered as to where they were from if she wasn't so busy flipping the battlefield into different dimensions of combat (_Garrus had to look away from the screen for a moment to catch his bearings. Shepard closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear a sudden headache. Even Tali, whose people lived on ships, had difficulty thinking as quickly in three dimensions as Six was. And Mordin...Mordin just stared at the screen, soaking it all in._)._

_After perhaps a minute or two of the insane bearing-less combat, there was a sudden lack of enemy fighters to fight. Six brought up her com just in time to hear Colonel Holland order,"Noble Six, set down immediately on that corvette's topside landing pad."_

_Six quickly set the fighter down on a flat surface on the top of the corvette and jumped down the hole in the center of the landing._

* * *

Shepard and the others were shocked by what they saw next. An alien wearing a pressure suit and wielding what was obviously a weapon, yet looked more like a claw and had no visible barrel to speak of. Shepard had to calm Tali from the implications and Garrus became more attentive, likely curious as to how the weapon worked. Not to mention Mordin, the Salarian was practically salivating(Shepard had given up on calming Mordin). Shepard finished calming Tali and turned back to the screen to see...

* * *

_Six kicked out the Elite's leg and stabbed it into the ground. She then turned and unleashed burst after burst for her BR until the next Elite's shields went down. Pulling out a shotgun, she fired into the warrior-xeno's head, shredding its face with a mass of pellets. In the low gravity, the dead Elite flew off the platform and into a bulkhead a few yards away before falling to the ground. Six turned just in time to be hit in the chest by 3 bolts of plasma from the last member of the communications team. She took a step back under the barrage, but her shields held and she fired another couple of shots into the chest of the last Elite, first lowering its shields, then ripping its torso into a bloody pulp._

_After a moment of pause, the colonel spoke again,"Holland to Savannah, enemy com relay is now offline."_

_The voice from before piped up,"Copy that, halting countermeasures, diverting all power and personnel to weapons._

_Then the colonel spoke again,"Alright Noble, let's get that slipspace bomb on-board. Six, get to the hangar."_

_Six simply reloaded her shot gun and made her way over to a doorway, flanked by three marines. The door opened and..._

* * *

Shepard and the others encountered yet another alien they had never seen. Two of the small creatures flanked another one of the large ones. Shepard sighed when he heard Mordin begin to talk to himself...rapidly. Tali was still practically salivating. Garrus just could not stop flapping his bloody mandibles (which were probably what got him in trouble with Six in the first place, now that he had seen the corpses of the larger aliens without the pressure suits on). Finally, any doubts that he may ever have had about the whole "another universe" thing had blown out of the water.

The team of four continued to watch as Six lead her marine team through the ship. She encountered two more types of alien on her journey. A bird-like one that the marines by her side called a jackal and a kind that seemed reminiscent of the Hanar.

Tali lost her breath for a moment when the Savannah broke apart and Garrus's mandibles shifted...again. Shepard's mouth tightened when Jorge told Six about his one-way trip. It reminded him too much of his decision on Virmire and Kaiden's death.

The team watched as Six fell to the planet below, and then saved thousands of lives. They watched as she rescued disorganized and fleeing members of the armed forces and disabled the enemy's jammers. They watched as she lost yet another member of her team to a sniper from above. They watched as Six and her team broke into Sword base and pulled underground. They watched as she headed up a defense against wave after wave of enemy before pulling back into the underground complex. They watched as Six took over the protection of an A.I. (Shepard and Garrus had to calm Tali at that one, while Mordin just kept watching, excitement in his eyes, completely still[not a good sign]). They saw Six leave behind a team member with the scientist who gave her the A.I. They saw Six lose her commander, killing a massive vehicle in the process. Shepard offered the fallen commander a quick salute before watching Six and her last companion hold off wave after wave of Covenant strike forces and deliver the A.I. to the last ship. They watched as Noble four sold his life dearly and Six destroyed a massive cruiser. Then they watched as Six fought her way through wave after wave of ground troops, destroying vehicles and sniping soldiers. They watched her crush skulls and break arms. They watched her drop her helmet and watched her kill several high ranking Elites and retrieve the helmet. Then they watched her play with it a bit before carrying it under her arm and begin jogging towards a far off Covenant cruiser.

* * *

_Six crested the ridge under the cruiser and looked out at the camp below. It surrounded a tall, angular, silver structure that was avoided by most of the camp. Six scanned the area and came across a small vehicle depot. She grinned and muttered under her breath,"I've always wanted my own plasma mortar," before running down the hillside towards the camp._

_She jumped behind a Wraith tank as a small patrol of Jackals and Grunts moved through the depot. When they passed, she quickly ran around the tank and hopped inside. She had always been curious as to how she could understand the basic controls of Covenant vehicles, but that was beside the point. She activated the tank and chuckled to a thought she kept to herself before gunning it through the camp, firing the plasma mortar at anything that moved. Splotches of plasma burst across the hull as a group of Elites tried to rally their cowardly kin...before Six reduced them to so much super-heated vapor. As she neared the center of the camp, she found herself coming under heavier and heavier attack until she was forced out of the tank by an incoming banshee squadron. _

_When she hit the ground after jumping out of the Wraith, she began to run away from the vehicle as fast as her enhanced muscles could move her, topping as 42 km/hr, and made it 6 steps before the tank was destroyed by a well-placed volley of fuel-rod rounds from the banshees above. As she was running, a blast from an overcharged plasma pistol somewhere destroyed her shields just in time for a volley from a plasma repeater to slam into her abdomen. She coughed up a little blood, but kept running and tossed grenades in the general direction the shots had come from, and was rewarded with alien screams as they detonaed. Another volley slammed across her left arm and forced her to drop the already primed grenade it held. When it exploded, Six was far enough away that she didn't need to worry. In fact, she was only a couple dozen yards from the structure. All that was between it and her were three Elite Zealots. Six shrugged for a moment before charging._

_As she ran, she pulled out her pilfered weapon and opened fire on the zealots, overloading one of their shields. After her first burst, she had no more time and used the now-useless repeater to club in the skull of the Elite without its shields. In the time it took her to do that however, the second zealot managed to stab his energy dagger into her collarbone. Six whirled around, ripping the dagger from his hand and her collar bone and catching it, before turning the blade and shoving it into his throat, cutting upwards and splitting his skull in two. Then, the third Zealot stabbed in quickly with his energy sword clean through her right arm. She yelped in pain before dropping the energy dagger and spin-kicking the Elite in the knee, snapping it. When the alien howled in agony, Six kicked up again and snapped its head back to quickly for the spine to handle, shoving a small portion of the spine through its throat._

_As the last Zealot fell, Six ran into the building, slamming herself against a small panel next to what could have been an entrance. Her suspicions were confirmed as the doors opened and a flock of sentinels came out, burning the Covenant camp to the ground. Six began to stumble inside, ignoring the pain in her wounds and the robotic constructs saving her in equal measure. Slowly, she reached a grand central chamber._

_A small eye-like robot floated up to her from below. It circled around her once before looking Six in the...eye and said, in a whimsical, metallic voice,"Greetings, Reclaimer, to Installation 72! I am Luminous Joy. You appear to be harmed. Please follow me!" It then began to float forward, ahead of Six across a spar of light, whistling the whole stumbled and weaved her way across behind him, her wounds catching up to her. After what seemed to be an eternity, Six stumbled off of the light bridge and fell onto her side onto the hard, alien metal's surface. She turned on to her back, gasping for air. Luminous hovered over her and chattered away before floating off for a second and a single robotic arm, with a syringe on the end of it. The arm lowered itself and plunged the needle into Six's neck, right into the jugular vein. After a few moments, Six began to shake and buck before sitting up rapidly, breathing rapidly before finally jumping to her feet and staring straight forward at the floating A.I._

_She was about to punch the little thing, and likely would have, but the light bridge winked out at that moment and a tremor shook the chamber. Six stumbled for a moment and Luminous rolled over for a few seconds before muttering,"Oh my...," and, turning to Six, said,"Reclaimer this is most disconcerting. Stay here!" The A.I. then flew off before Six could grab it. She muttered something similar to,"Damn crazy robot eye is gonna get it when he comes back...injecting me with that damn..." Before she was able to finish, however, the A.I. returned with 4 sentinels around it. The four immediately moved to the corners of the small square room in they were in. Six turned, her helmet under her arm, and observed them and the room itself._

_The small room had three walls and an open space where the light bridge used to be. Each corner had a small indent in the wall that was surrounded by a mass of intricate lines that all lead to a central area in the floor. Across the vast expanse that the light bridge had crossed, the fighting between the sentinels and the Covenant could still be seen. Before Six could observe the room further, the four sentinels settled into the alcoves and the lines surrounding them lit up with a blue light. When all the lights converged on the central part of the floor, two structured came up. The first one looked like a your stereotypical portal and the next looked, oddly enough, like a UNSC cryopod _[Yeah, yeah, plot holes, I know. You guys are going to send some messages and then I'm going to rationalize it, whatever]_. Luminous, meanwhile, was muttering to itself._

_"I didn't want to do it so early! How dare they interrupt my meeting with the reclaimer! Not to mention the problems in the other world...Why did the creators forced me to monitor this installation and that boring foreign place I'll never know...oh! Reclaimer, you must step into the machine, much as I hate to say it. __Your potential is wasted here, Reclaimer. This planet has fallen. With this machine, you will be sent where you are needed most, fret not for your fallen comrades. I will hold here with and hope for your return from whatever awaits you."_

___Luminous then nudged Six into the cryopod, her resistance to the move rather lacking due to her own curiosity and wonder at what place could need her more. She took a step and got into the cryopod, dropping the helmet behind her. For the floor of the pod, the camera filmed Six's freezing, Luminous pulling up an interface briefly, the portal powering on and the pod being pulled into it, and then...nothing..._

* * *

The screen fell to blackness and then lit up again in white letters, reading,"End of video" on repeat.

* * *

Shepard and the others blinked repeatatively as the lights in the conference room. Mordin was quick to leave, speaking so quickly to himself that Shepard couldn't pick out any words. Tali then left in much the same fashion. In the end, Garrus and Shepard just stood in the conference room, looked at each other and both said,"Well...damn." and then left the room, Garrus to get back to his "calibrations" and Shepard to the Med-bay, in hopes that the new arrival had awaken.

* * *

**Okay, bring on the criticisms! I have no answers to any of them so I'm gonna bs my way through the whole thing! Glad to have chapter 4 up, sorry for the long wait. I'm gonna be put another story up within the month if all goes well. A W40k v ME crossover. I hope you enjoy them all.**


	5. Chapter 5

Well…here it is, my fifth chapter…damn. Shep is going to talk to Six in this one and show her all the proof. Then she is gonna try to fit in before she goes around and talks to the crew.

Okay, I've decided on what her armor is going to be. For the first few she is just going to have standard armor, then she is getting her old armor meshed into the ME stuff.

This is going from Six's POV.

**Disclaimer: None of this is mine…not even the non-canon stuff. In fact I auctioned that stuff off last week for exactly zero dollars and zero cents.**

* * *

Slowly, she came to. An older woman was leaning over her and she felt...strange. It was almost as though she were naked. After a moment, the older woman noticed she was waking up and waved over to someone out of her sight range. The sound of footsteps announced the return of Six's senses as she just heard the end of the elder woman say,"...waking up, Shepard."

Slowly, with only the infinite care that can come of immense strength handled gingerly, Six sat up and turned herself so her legs were hanging off the side. She shook her head briefly before looking up from her body, now only in a skin-tight bodysuit, and towards the older woman and the man, Shepard. She looked the older woman in the eyes and asked, "Armor?"

Doctor Chakwas just nodded over to the pile of Titanium-A on the other side of the room saying, "I couldn't treat you with it on."

Six sighed and looked at her before asking, in a resigned tone, "It was the stomach, wasn't it? I knew that damn repeater got through..."

Shepard cut in then, "I saw the video. What were those things?"

Six pouted, it was odd to see such a childish expression on her face, and muttered something about that "not being fair" before matching eyes with Shepard and saying, "If you watched the whole thing then that means you saw all but one of the races of the Covenant."

Shepard raised an eyebrow and Chakwas settled into her chair, ignoring the conversation and diving into the readings she had gathered while treating Six. Six spotted it in her peripheral vision, but was unable to comment before Shepard asked, "All but one?"

Six nodded once and completed,"Yeah, there was one more, their leaders. In English they are called the Prophets. I only got to fight against the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Brutes, Drones, and Hunters," after seeing a flash of confusion on Shepard's face, she continued, "The guys with breathers, the bird-looking guys, the guys with mandibles, the gorilla guys, the bug guys, and the walking tanks."

Shepard, now linking the names to the pictures, nods and says, dropping the subject, "Well, now that you're fixed up and awake, I have a few things for you..."

Six interrupts him, joking, "Awww, for me? You shouldn't have!"

Shepard just shakes his head, Six and Joker were going to get along just fine, and continues,"...One of them being a codex about this little universe, another being an offer on my part, and the last is an apology."

Six perked up a little and tilted her head to the side. Once more, an oddly childish maneuver on the part of the hyper lethal vector, but, hell, it had been too long since she had been out of the armor, and the feel of the cool air on her skin was making her perky...moving on. Shepard paused for a moment and yet again raised an eyebrow...it seemed to sorta be his "thing", and tossed her a small device.

Six caught to device and looked briefly at the small, strapped projector before looking back up at Shepard, raising her own eyebrow. Shepard just shrugged and held out his left arm for a small amount of time before turning on his omni-tool. When Six jumped back a little he sighed and said, "It goes onto your hand, around the palm. It'll allow you to use this," Shepard held up the omni-tool," and read the Codex EDI made you."

Six glanced down at the thing and quickly put it around her hand. She squeezed for a moment, careful not to break it, and when it lit up; she gave a big smile and examined the thing muttering something about how it was "so much cooler than a HUD".

Shepard, for his part, was trying to consolidate the image of the cold-blooded killer he had seen in the mission vids and the less-than-serious character before him. She, according to the vids once again, could have easily killed Garrus and the others when they first met, and likely could have taken the ship with little more trouble. Mind you she had been wounded at the time but..."How did you get your...powers?"

Six snorted, holding in a laugh, before saying with a chuckle, "Powers? Shepard? Really? You make me seem like Wonder Woman...granted I'm probably better than the Amazonian Princess but still...,"She glances at Shepard and sighs, seeing he isn't going to give it up, before continuing," Remember how I told you about SPARTANs?"Shepard nodded once and Chakwas perked up a little before Six continued, "Well, I was a part of the third generation. SPARTAN III's so to speak. When I was 7 my parents died in a minor skirmish out in space. Two weeks later some ONI guys came and asked me if I wanted the get revenge."

Chakwas piped up, "Revenge?"

Six waved it away and continued, "I was 7 of course I said yes. Then me and a few hundred other kids were shipped off to some forest planet to train. We were anywhere from 6 to 12 years old. All of us were war orphans. After months? Years maybe? I don't remember. Of training, we finally got our implants. Thank God for modern science, all of us lived through it. Way better than the 33 from the 75 of the SPARTAN II's. Of course, we then spent weeks getting used to the implants before we were issued our Semi-Powered Infiltration armor..."

Here Shepard interrupted, "What now?"

Six turned to him, oblivious (not really) to yet another person joining the conversation, Miranda, and replied,"SPI armor, basically a really bad-ass stealth suit with passive camouflage. If you only watched the vid from the mission cam, then you never saw me wear it. I only got the cam when I was issued Mjolnir Mark IV," Six waved the pile of metal plates next to Miranda and pulled open her new Omni-tool, browsing through the codex and continuing the story at the same time.

She then went ahead, Miranda getting more interested now that she was here in person rather than just watching the vids secretly or listening in on the conversation," Anyway, where was I...oh yeah! Anywho, after they give us the armor, I get pulled out of Beta company right before Operation TORPEDO wiped them out and basically spent the next seven years working as a personal assassin for a few admirals and the like. Then I hit twenty-two, the Covenant attacked Reach and...well...you saw the rest."

Shepard shook his head and then said, "If it wasn't for that recording, I would be inclined to send you to a psychiatric ward...or the luny bin if that makes you feel better."

Six chuckled a little and asked, without looking up, "So, is the princess behind you going to deign to speak to me? I would be ever so honored if she did."

Shepard turned his head casually and said, "Ah, Miranda. Glad you could join us! What's up?"

The genetically "perfect" woman looked away from Six's form and towards Shepard. She sighed and said, in her most commanding tone, "Shepard, are we planning to keep her? If so I believe the Illusive Man will likely want a few words."

Six continued to look over the omni-tool and its codex, swiftly memorizing the various histories and races that were here. Briefly, she thought of Emile and closed the omni-tool down (thank God for tutorials!). She lost herself in her memories for a moment, glad she had managed to kill a few Elites with it as she had fought towards the relic.

_In two slashes, the Zealot lost an eye and a hand. The huge alien fell back from trying to strangle Six, roaring in agony. She landed with a thud and, pausing for only a few milliseconds, launched herself at the distracted xeno. She crashed into the disoriented Elite and began to stab into its torso, opening up its vital organs and filling its chest cavity with blood. Reversing her grip, she thrust the blade upwards and spiked the bastard's head.__  
_

Six came out of the stupor just in time to hear Shepard say, "Alright, alright! I'm sorry about bringing the whole sister thing up, but that is no excuse for bringing Liara into this! You know what, nevermind. Six? TIM is going to speak to you, just follow Miranda up the elevator..."

Miranda interrupted him, causing a scowl, "Though some proper clothes may be in order beforehand."

Finally, Chakwas piped up, "I believe that I can help with that," she turned and grabbed a set of casual clothes out of her desk before turning back around,"These are my old off-duty clothes. They may be a little small on you, but I was on the larger side when I was younger, so it hopefully won't be much of an issue."

Six just smiled and took the clothes when offered them. Shepard left, a minor scowl at the abrupt ending of the conversation apparent on his face, but not without saying, obviously directed at Six, "Don't trust the Illusive Man. He has a special way of manipulating people." Then the door shut and the three women were left in the room.

* * *

Six stepped forward, standard alliance casuals with a small Cerberus logo over the right breast covering the black, skin-tight one-piece, into an orange circle. Soon a grid pattern rose from the circle and she found herself face-to-face with a man who really, really reminded her of Colonel Ackerson, not in looks, but in the...aura (for lack of a better word) he had about him.

The grey-haired man took a quick draft from his cigar and took in the woman in front of him. Slowly, he brought the cigar away from his mouth and tapped out the ask into a tray in his armrest. He left his hand there and met the SPARTAN's eyes with his own before saying, without a hint of surprise, "Hello, Noble Six. I've seen your video, and I have a proposition for you."

Six let her left hand rest on her hip and regarded the man in front of her for several second before saying in reply, "Really now? And what are the details of this little 'agreement'?"

TIM just smiled briefly and steepled his fingers in front of him before leaning forwards and responding, "In a moment, I'm sure you've read the codex EDI prepared for you," she nodded once, "Good. Then you know about the Collectors and what exactly Shepard is doing," once more, she nodded, "Then, this is what I'll need."

Six sighed and got ready for a torrent...only to be pleasantly surprised as the Illusive Man held up two fingers and said, "I need two things from you: your cooperation with Shepard, he could use all the help he can get, and, if you would be so kind, a sample of your technology."

Six contemplated what she was going to say for a moment before replying, "I've already agreed to stay with Shep, and what do you need the tech for, all I have is the armor, and even that is mostly destroyed."

The Illusive Man settled back into his chair and chuckled before replying, "It isn't the armor I'm after, it is the shields. When we face the Reapers, and we will, any kind of shield that can stop directed energy weapons is a number one priority."

Six winced, her shield was a part of the systems on the Mjolnir armor that was classified, unlike the composition of the armor itself. Of course, from what she had seen from this universe's weapons, her shield would drain much too quickly for it to be of any real aid. Bullets and bits of plasma it could handle with ease. Sand-sized shards of metal going a fraction of the speed of light? Not so much. Finally she relented, "Fine, what do I get in return?"

The Illusive Man had a silent moment of victory before answering, "You'll get a way home."

Six was quiet for a long, long time before the near-silent reply came, "What?"

The Illusive Man settled back as a wolf would after capturing its prey, ready to begin the feast, and said, "A few days ago, a massive anomaly was observed in the Horse Head Nebula, we were able to dispatch a science team to the anomaly itself, unfortunately, Shepard found you before we could trace your trajectory. Given time, we could replicate the anomaly in a much more stable fashion and effectively send you back to your time and place," the Illusive man smirked one last time and shut down the Quantum Entanglement comm, but not without one last quip, "I expect results will only begin to show after you have helped the Commander, I apologize for the wait."

After the talk was over, Six was left, silent, in the room. She had been so composed and comedic over her hours on the ship, mainly because she had given up hope of return. She felt she should just adjust to the new society, to a new set of rules. Now however...

Slowly, ever slowly, Six sank to the floor. With a slight bang, she fell to her knees. She brought her hands up to her face and was almost surprised by the wetness. Tears. It hadn't been more than a week since Emile and...and Carter had died. Even if she went back, there was nothing for her. Jun had been taken away, Jorge had been teleported to oblivion, Kat had been shot through the head, Carter had taken out a Scarab with himself, and Emile had been stabbed through the heart. No one was waiting for her anywhere. Slowly, she moved her mouth and sounded out their names, from Noble One down.

Then Six, stood back up, she would do all she could here. That was all that was ever asked. She wouldn't defile their memories by stopping now. She would help these people here and then get back. If anything, she hadn't destroyed that cruiser yet. She turned and walked back out.

* * *

She encountered Shepard on the way to the elevator and said, before her could raise a question about why her eyes were red, "I'll be staying in the cargo hold, by the cryo pod, if you need me." She then went past him and just the elevator door abruptly.

Shepard made a glance towards Kelly, who just shrugged and said,"She is used to not making unnecessary movements, I couldn't get much from her body language, though her solid step indicates more confidence from before. I'm still going to need to talk to her if I really want to find anything."

Shepard nodded and replied, "Do it right after our visit to Illium, I have to pick up two more recruits and meet Liara again."

Kelly winked at him as the Elevator returned to the floor and he got on, saying, "Good luck with your girlfriend Commander."

Shepard just sighed and made his way to the Captain's quarters.

* * *

**There you have it folks! Chapter 5, hot off the presses. Sorry for the wait, but I'm also doing my ME Warhammer crossover. They should be released on alternating weeks with each chapter at about this length now that school is over for summer.**


	6. Chapter 6

Ahhhh…chapter 6 people! Finally a bit of action is to be had! This should run into Thane's mission and will give us the first taste of Six's good ole' combat skills. That is after the fluff of course.

I've decided that I will only ever use the Shepard and Six viewpoints for long periods of time. Other views may be thrown in, but they will be temporary.

As far as pairings are concerned…they will remain secret for now and only be implied. Later…maybe they will become of more import.

Lastly, I would like for naming ideas for Six. It'll be a while until she tells anyone, but it seems like something that would be included into a loyalty mission later.

**Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff, it owns me.**

* * *

Six was pacing.

She had thought that she would have enough room and privacy in the cargo bay, no one else was in it after all, but between the Krogan, she had learned its name was "Grunt", staring at her from above with a savage glee and the various crew members that had glanced at her as they walked through the hallway above her, she was starting to feel like a lab experiment. Granted, she was one, but still it was uncomfortable.

At first she had practiced with Emile's kukri and made the Krogan perk up with a massive grin (at least she thought it was grin) on his face, but then the red-headed woman she had seen as she left her talk with the Illusive Man and before she had dropped the small shield generator of her armor off in the brunette woman's, she had learned that she was "Miranda", room had come down and, after delivering her new armor, asked her question upon question about her life, roots, and friends...she was uncomfortable with the questions but tried to answer them as best she could, it wouldn't pay to antagonize a fellow crewmember.

After being interrogated, a voice she assumed to belong to the pilot came over the intercom and announced that they would be revisiting some planet called Illium to pick up some more crew. By that point, Six had finished disassembling and reassembling her new weapons enough times to do it in her sleep, sharpen Emile's kukri enough that bones were cut as easily as paper, and had jogged around the room enough times that she could close her eyes and visualize the spacious chamber from every possible angle, evaluating its defensibility in case of boarding.

Then, she got inexplicably and extremely bored.

And so, she paced.

Occasionally, a brief shudder would run through the ship as it passed through a mass relay. These rarely happened more than once in a dozen hours. It had taken three of these jumps for Six to realize that she was tired. She paused in her pacing. It had been a long time since she was tired. Granted she had felt physically tired a large number of times over the previous weeks, both on Reach and after she had arrived in this different universe, but for the first time, she was too tired to think straight. Her mind wandered as she turned about face and walked silently towards her makeshift bed.

She thought of at first her life before becoming a SPARTAN, granted that had been long ago and most of it was blurry to her now, but she did remember one thing, her mother. She supposed that she looked a lot like her mother, at least in facial structure, but other than her looks, what she really remembered was that her mother would always tell her a little poem before she went off on her next deployment.

She had liked some obscure guy from the 1800's and what was then the British Isles. His name was Rudyard something or another, Kipling, she thought, and he wrote mostly about imperialism. It struck Six that she had fought the Insurrection and briefly chuckled at the thought of her favorite poet from her mother's side. Slowly, Six began to recite one of her favorites.

"For God and the soldier we adore,

In time of danger, not before!_  
_

The danger passed, and all things righted,

God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

It was a short thing, but it reminded her of more peaceful days, when neighbors would both complain about there being too much of a military presence and there not being enough of one. They had never said it to her face, of course, but eavesdropping was a skill she had developed early on. She remembered the peaceful days, and, with these thoughts in her head, pushing out the shock from the Illusive man, she flopped onto the collection of cushions she had found and assembled and slept voluntarily for the first time in a week.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in another relevant area of the story, Shepard was pacing. It may have had something to do with the fact that he had forgotten to do everything the first time he had gone to Illium, it might have had something to do with the newest super-soldier addition to his crew, or it may have had something to do with being forced into meeting a certain blue-skinned Asari that had changed so much over the previous two years.{A/N: My money is on the third option...any takers? No? Damn, they saw through my facade!}

He still had a picture of Liara sitting on his desk. It had been a simple matter of downloading the picture off of the extranet. He had been shocked to say the least after meeting her when Miranda had needed her sister saved. The change his blue love had undergone when he had died made him disgusted with himself. It was his fault she had changed so much. Still, he pushed this feeling to the back of his mind, he couldn't have such thoughts distracting him on a mission.

He glanced towards the clock, they were due to arrive at Illium in 4 hours. He sighed and started to equip his Kestrel armor and pick the ground team out at the same time. Briefly, he thought, "Urban combat, mid-to-short range fights...Tali," and highlit the image on Tali on his personal terminal. He pulled on his glove and then paused a moment before highlighting an image of Six. He muttered to himself, "nothing fixes trust issues like trial by fire."

He fit on his last piece of armor and scanned the dossiers of the two he would pick up, the Assassin and the Justicar. The Assassin was a Drell by the name of Thane Krios...hopefully he went by Thane and not Krios, what an odd conversation _that _had been with Wrex. He had slowed recently but was rumored to have a contract on Illium. Shepard highlit his dossier, if he was a professional, then he would likely be done rather quickly with what was going on. The Justicar could wait a day.

Shepard fit on the helmet and sent a message to Six and Tali, telling them that they were up for the next mission. After that he sighed, glanced forlornly at his picture of Liara and left his quarters for the armory, it was time to pick out Six's guns.

* * *

Six hefted a rather large gun. It looked worn and old, but oddly soothing, as if it was just the right fit for her. She glanced over at Jacob, who had quickly given up pointing out weapons to her and just let her have free reign of the armory, and asked, in a voice that betrayed her true curiosity, "What's this one? And why do I like it?"

Jacob glanced up from his issue of _Badass Weekly_ and smirked. He walked over to her and took the gun from her hands, well, asked for it without words and she complied, he wouldn't ever be able to _take_ something from her, and clapped it on the side once, venting its thermal clip, before handing it back to her and saying, "M-96 Mattock heavy rifle, not top-of-the-line, but damn reliable and fairly versatile," he paused, looked at the rifle again and continued, "It's semi-auto, has a really heavy punch, and it one of the more accurate rifles. Only problems you could get with it are up close and personal, thing only fires once per trigger pull and has a lower ammo reservoir."

Six just grinned. She could handle pretty much anything up close, and she preferred picking her shots to spray and pray. She pressed a button on the side that Shepard had shown to her before he went to wait by the airlock, and she watched the gun fold up before setting it onto her right shoulder blade. She then walked over to another table and picked up another weapon, this one for exactly the opposite reason of the Mattock. It was eerily similar to another set of alien weapons she had been forced to use over the years. From its purple color to its sleek curves, the gun screamed, "Covenant!" to her.

She heard a huff behind her and Jacob appeared over her shoulder to repeat the process he had done with the Mattock, before continuing and describing the weapon in detail. Eventually she settled on it as well. She thought she saw heavy weapons for a second, but they were in a cabinet marked "Shepard" and she respected his property.

After putting the shotgun on the small of her back, she waved a goodbye to Jacob, who just smirked and went back to his magazine, and stepped out into the CIC.

It was smaller than most of the ships Six had been on before, with the exception of an ONI prowler that was about the same size, but the smooth curves, calm lighting, and plain colors were a much nicer experience in total that the blocky mess that made up every UNSC vessel. She passed the Galactic map with little more than a wave to Kelly and a glance at the hologram. They had had that kind of tech in her universe, but never so...beautiful before. She continue past CIC and made her way up to the bridge, ignoring the glances that came her way from the crew at their stations, and walked up behind Tali.

Six sided to the right of Tali and tried to look down at Shepard without looking down on him. It was not easy being tall. Shepard glanced at her and said, in a condescending tone, "Glad you finally joined us, Six." At that Tali looked to her right and jumped in surprise. The Quarian yelped out, "Keelah! How can someone so big be so quiet!" Six frowned at her and said, in a playful tone she had yet to feel again after the talk with TIM, "That hurt my feelings Tali, I'm very sensitive about my weight." Tali must have seen something in Six's stature that said, "I don't feel like funniness now," because she turned back to Shepard quickly.

Shepard then sighed and began to relay the mission details, finishing before Joker piped in, "We're through the Mass Relay, should be hitting Illium in five minutes." Shepard only nodded and the three occupied the next few moments looking at their respective omnitools. Shepard scanning through Thane's dossier again, Six reading up on Illium, and Tali looking over the footage of Six's escapade again.

* * *

{A/N: Hope nobody minds, but I'm going to skip most of the talking, though there will be references to it later}

After what had seemed like _hours_ of wasted time to Six, during which Shepard had ran around the city seemingly randomly hacking consoles and them running over to another one and uploading something, involving himself in a weird altercation between a Krogan and an Asari, or the amateur vigilante that Shepard showed the error of his ways, Six and Tali had to deal with a severely awkward atmosphere as Shepard talked with some Asari information broker named Liara T'Soni.

She knew something was up when they first walked in and the mood of everyone took a turn for the worse. Tali's shoulder's slumped slightly, Shepard's voice lost a touch of its commanding tone, and there was a glint in the eye of the information broker. Judging from the way the Asari and Shepard's respective hips moved, they had had something in the past. Had Six not been bored out of her mind, she would have found it unnatural and weird, but oh well.

Eventually, Shepard got the information he was looking for and Six decided, as they walked down the stairs of the information broker's office, that she had been quiet for long enough and that if she continued someone might ask her as to what occurred in the conversation with TIM. _Get ahold of yourself, Noble Six! Depression is not your forte! Say something sarcastic!_ Six turned towards Tali as they walked down and asked, in as innocent a voice as possible, "Tali, do you get the feeling Shepard might have had something with that nice alien lady?"

Tali almost visibly stiffened and Shepard actually stopped walking. Slowly, Tali turned to Six and said, in that was laced in something most certainly not camaraderie, "Drop it."

Six was almost taken aback, after all, while she knew that the alien didn't like her, she never suspected her able of outright distrust. She bit back a retort that would have served to make the situation worse and turned forward again, motioning for Shepard to continue to walk.

Shepard frowned slightly and moved on, reaching the bottom of the stairs and turning right around to travel through the hallway to the contact in the carport. He would be the first to say that he was worried. He knew that Tali and Six wouldn't get along at first, and thus had hoped that working together on a mission may get rid of some of the tension between them. Tali had seen the video of Six's past after all, she knew why she had acted the way and say the things she did.

They reached the door at the other end of the hallway after parting the civilians in the hallway like only three heavily armed individuals can and Shepard made a brief prayer...not that he was having much luck with those recently, that Six and Tali would reconcile.

Shepard walked down the steps with the two others in tow and logged a complaining Salarian's rant in the back of his mind before catching a name he had heard before, "Nassana Dantius" and swore. Whenever she was involved, head would roll. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to encounter her when looking for Thane.

* * *

Shepard was sitting next to Seryna and mentally slapping himself. _Of course the assassin would be after Dantius. If her business practices haven't changed over the years, then murdering rivals is one of the best ways to draw an assassin._ He was broken out of his reverie by Seryna saying next to him, "There they are: The Dantius Towers," she paused briefly and Shepard glanced over at her, noticing in his peripherals Tali and Six each trying to catch a glimpse of the objective, before she continued, "You'll have to get up the second tower and cross the bridge to the penthouse. Her mercs will fight you every step, but it's your best chance."

Six, meanwhile was ignoring the conversation and trying not to get too close to Tali, she didn't need for another conflict after that fiasco on the stairs, while trying to see the towers. She would never tell anyone, but even New Alexandria didn't have skyscrapers as tall as these.

As the case was, however, she wouldn't need to tell anyone.

Being a SPARTAN had the downside of not really learning to control your facial features. As such, the look of awe was still on Six's face when they landed and stepped out of the aircar. As the vehicle sped off, Shepard turned to look at them and smirked briefly before saying, "You'll catch flies that way, Six."

Tali managed a brief, "Wha...?" and Six closed her mouth before a wall lifted, revealing a pane of glass behind which Salarians were being slaughtered by mechs, two humanoid and two canine. The mechs then turned their heads and, noticing the three strangers outside, turned away from the dead and dieing workers to attack the new hostiles.

After a moment of pause, the fireteam pulled out their weapons and shot through the glass.

Six was the first to open fire, her reflexes allowing her Mattock to be up and firing before the mechs had even fully turned to them. With a brush of her hand, Six activated one of a few special attacks she had bothered to integrate into her weapon and loosed a concussive shot. A millisecond later, a piece of sand-sized metal shot past the relatively slow-moving shot and broke the window, allowing the special ammunition to send the front-most canine-mech flying back into one of the humanoid ones.

By then, Tali had activated her omni-tool and summoned Chiktikka vas Paus in the midst of the mech units. The fast-thinking drone quickly zapped the jumble of robotic parts that were once two mechs and they promptly exploded, knocking over and back the last humanoid mech, sending it plummeting towards the ground several dozen stories below.

As an anti-climactic end to the battle, Shepard gutted the last canine mech with a shot from his Mantis sniper rifle, punching through its faceplate and blowing out its "tail". The mech fell faceplate-first, slid up to Shepard, and exploded, causing Shepard's shields to flash and repel the force.

There was a moment of pause, and then Six piped up, "Totally badass."

Tali would have rubbed her temples if they weren't under a helmet that kept her from dieing and retotred, "Shut up, Six."

Shepard just sighed, it was going to be a long way up.

* * *

**Now to commence with the self-deprecation!**

**Me: So you guys may have noticed by now, but I have self-confidence issues.**

**Other Me: No, they wouldn't have noticed that! You only rant about how terrible your writing is the entire beginning author note, what could possibly give them the idea that you hate yourself?**

**Me: I don't hate myself! I'm great!**

**Other Me: Do you hate me?**

**Me: Well, yeah...a lot.**

**Other Me: And I'm a figment of your imagination! Ergo, you hate yourself!**

**Me: Well...damn.**

**Other Me: And now you have been outsmarted by yourself...are you planning this this way?**

**Me: Probably, I don't know.**

**OM** (A/N: It's tiring writing that out all the time)**: God...your lazy and hate yourself.**

**Me: What do you mean?**

**OM: The fourth wall doesn't apply here.**

**Me: Well...fuck. See you guys again in a week or two for chapter 7! Until then, I'm going to keep fighting with myself, bye!**

**OM: Go die in a hole.**

(I think I may need help...oh well.)


	7. Chapter 7

Damn...I need to learn how to stop procrastinating, huh? Ah well, as long as you guys don't hate me, I'm fine...wait a minute...you guys don't hate me...right? Dammit!

**Disclaimer: Seriously! I own abso-fuckin'-lutely NOTHING. I am a moocher to the maximum! Get it through your thick skull you crazy bastards!**

{A/N: The author apologizes for his recent increase in the use of curse words, please carry on.}

* * *

Shepard was slowly coming to regret his decision on squad-mates. He would never say anything bad about Tali, it was just that her combat expertise did not lie in long range combat, of which there was way too much. _Seriously, who needs so many huge rooms in one tower dammit!_ Then there was Six, who was such a kill-stealer it wasn't even funny. Plus, she seemed giddy about it! Every time she got a headshot off he could swear he heard children celebrating with a "Yaaaaay!" The only thing missing was confetti!

Shepard lined up his Mantis one last time and blasted a grain of sand through the head of last Eclipse merc in the room. He sighed and allowed the rifle to fold up before he reattached it to its magnetic lock. He would have to replace that rifle soon, he liked its power so he had yet to use the Viper, but it just wouldn't cut it against shielded targets. He glanced to the right to where Six was helping Tali scrounge about for thermal clips off of the newly deceased before he made a complete about face and walked towards the elevator and their only way up the tower.

* * *

Six tossed the last couple of thermal chips from the dead merc over to Tali and glanced over to where Shepard was activating the elevator to come pick them up. After a moment of silence, she decided to point out the obvious, "So did you guys hear the one where the merc group loses contact with all of their forces below them in a tower, and then the elevator is called to where the last surviving group was?"

Shepard gave her a quick glare that she shrugged to before motioning her to cover to the right of the the elevator and Tali to the left. Shep took up the middle behind a pile of what looked like metal floor panels. After a brief wait (A/N: How come the enemy gets a fast elevator, huh?[A/N/N:Come on, you had to see it coming]) the door opened and a metal storm shot out at Shepard. He only managed to get a couple of shots off before the shattering of his barrier forced him to take cover. Luckily enough, the second shot had been accompanied by the glass-shattering noise that signaled shields failing on one of the mercs. As soon as Shepard ducked down, the enemy forces rushed out, trying to storm their position. There were three of them, two engineers being lead by an angry Krogan. The two engineers came rushing out a second after the massive Krogan had charged and quickly flanked him, trying to rush Tali and Six's respective positions.

Six was lucky, her foe had been the one to lose her shields. Three shots, two to the center of mass and a final one through the forehead, hit the mercenary and dropped her, just in time for the blast of Tali's shotgun to propel the other merc staggering back and into Six's LoS. One pull of the trigger and a bunch of liquefied brains later, the two females pulled a pincer movement and began to pour fire into the Krogan, his shields quickly draining. Suddenly, Six was very happy for her experience with the Brutes when the huge alien roared and turned its blood-rage onto her. With another roar, the Krogan bulldozed toward Six. She rolled out of the way, firing a burst of depleted uranium grains into the xeno. She grimaced as her rounds slam into his head and ricochet off of his plate. Soon enough, Shepard realized he was not under fire and popped up for a shot that tore through what remained of the Krogan's armor and shredded his knee. Almost obliviously, the Krogan continued to charge Six. Another burst from Six and a shot from Shepard shredded the other knee, and the Krogan, suddenly aware of his destroyed legs, collapsed forward. With a splat, the reptile hit the ground, orange blood leaking everywhere, still trying to crawl towards Six. Tali quickly put a spread into the Krogan's hump while he was still down and his movements stopped. Six, ever cautious, poked the big guy with her Mattock. Almost instantly, fast enough that Six could see it coming but couldn't do jack shit about it, the big guy snapped his arm out and hit the gun away before twisting his face up, grabbing her leg, and pulling.

The Spartan, used to the moves of something with massive strength and endurance going berserk, snapped her leg out with the pull and straight into the Krogan's face. There was a distinct snap and then silence. The Krogan's headplate had been crushed in, Six's armored boot sticking into it and through to the brain. With a rather gooey noise, Six yanked her foot out, the front of the boot slightly dented in, and met eyes with the other two members of the fireteam. After a moment's pause, Six tilted her head to the right in a gesture of curiosity and said, "What?" before giving a rather psychotic smile and continuing, "If you're worried about the blood, I have a lot of experience in cleaning stains like these, you wouldn't believe what Emi...," at this her face hardened and lost its usual hilarity. Six just scowled and shook her head before glaring over at her confused audience of two. Seeing them, she just snarled out, "Let's go," and walked into the now-empty elevator.

Shepard and Tali exchanged a look, one of concern, and followed the irate Spartan into the Elevator before Shepard punched in the destination and the platform shot up the massive towers.

* * *

Six sighed on the inside. She knew she couldn't be mad at Shepard or Tali, hell, if anyone she should be mad at the Illusive Man or herself, but bringing up Emile had not lent itself towards her happiness. As the Elevator shot up the tower, Six looked over at the other two members of Shepard's ground team and sighed on the outside. She noticed their worried glance and held up her hands, palms out, before apologizing, "Sorry, about my little...kerfuffle (A/N: Yes, kerfuffle) back there."

Tali simply mumbled something along the lines of "It's okay" or "Don't worry about it" and Shepard glanced at the Immuno-challenged alien before looking back at Six and replying, "Don't start, we know what's you're going through, after all...losing squadmates isn't exactly a new concept for us."

"Ah...," Six managed to choke out before what might have been the most awkward elevator ride of the 22nd century ended and the door pinged open...

* * *

...to reveal possibly the most oblivious mercenary ever.

Shepard came very, very close to shooting him there and then.

"We don't need reinforcements. I'll take care of it."

Tali would have laughed if she wasn't still hyped up on whatever it is Dextro's have for adrenaline.

"It's under control. I'll go down there myself."

Six was angry, not only was her apology interrupted, but this guy thought he could even begin to handle them. Then she was curious as to why the merc still had his external speakers on...

Shepard got right behind the merc, and Six and Tali put the man in their sights. Shepard held out his right hand and made a slicing motion. Both Six and Tali moved their fingers to just above the trigger guard.

Shepard smirked once and said, "Turn around, very slowly."

.

.

.

"Damn it"

* * *

"I would have just killed him"

"Six..."

"Just saying, Shep. I mean, the splat he would have made would take weeks to clean up, _weeks__._"

"At least we know we are on the right track now, right?"

*Sigh* "Thanks Tali, let's just get back to blasting our way through these damn towers and grab the Assassin, okay?"

"Fine, but he better be worth me missing a Killpocalypse."

"What?"

"The forth wall, it has been broken. We may now continue."

"Six, you're weird."

* * *

Johnathan Miller was raised in the outer colonies, beyond Citadel space. When he was 7, mercs raided their settlement, called Olympus Landing, and burned the place to the ground. The women and children were taken and the men were killed. He never did find out who ordered the hit on his colony, but he was able to escape after 16 years of being a gopher, meat shield, and all-in-all slave. He stowed-away in a shuttle and made it to Omega. There he survived gang-wars, purges, and the occasional Vorcha plague to finally get a cushy guard job on Illium.

He was currently patrolling around the unfinished tower's link to the bridge.

Two seconds later and the door to the elevator room opened and an incinerator round punched through his skull.

* * *

Six rapidly switched between the mechs in the room, who had gone into disarray after Shepard had managed to kill-steal her back with the Eclipse trooper.

A head would explode here. A leg would be destroyed there. Finally, Tali would shred any of the FENRIS mechs that came close.

Six twisted up over her cover and unloaded a thermal clip into the last LOKI mech in the room. It's internal systems utterly shredded, the mech simply slumped. Six, seeing this, let out a sigh and started to holster her gun when she was hit in the side by what felt like a Jorge bum-rushing her. She was promptly flung into a set of crates.

Staggering up and bringing her gun into position, Six made it the standing position in time to see Shepard brain an Asari with his rifle before he flipped it around and unloaded into the alien's head point-blank. Needless to say, her head disintegrated.

Six whistled as she struggled to her feet and said, "Damn Shep, brutal!"

Shepard looked at her for a second and raised one eyebrow before responding, "Didn't you want to kick a guy from the some-odd hundredth floor like 30 second ago?"

Six sighed and shook her head. "You just don't get it," she sighed out, "It's all about how annoying you can be, his splat would, once more, take _weeks _to clean up, her? maybe a couple of minutes. You aren't getting the greatest possible annoyance for the least amount of work...," at this point, Six began pacing and continued to expound on the subject.

MEANWHILE, At the Hall of Justice...actually just across the room. Tali just shook her head slowly and muttered, "She's insane, I swear. She has to be more insane than Wrex!"

Back with Shep and friend, Six just sighed at the uncomprehending look on Shepard's face. Getting ready to launch into another tirade, Six was interrupted by a communications console bursting into static before the voice of a rather disgruntled Asari came over the line, asking for thing like status reports and junk. Six glanced at Shepard and a knowing look was shared. Shepard walked up to the console and pressed the reply button, letting the poor, poor Ms. Dantius ask him in a relieved voice as to what was going on down there before replying, in a rather badass tone, "I'm afraid your men aren't able to respond, Nassana."

A high five obscured the sound of the Asari yelling out in frustration.

* * *

...Sigh, sorry about this everyone, I feel that putting the bridge and Thane into the next chappy let's me get to my ME/Wh40k crossover quicker...I mean I feel that placing them into their own chapter allows me to give more and better details for the surly emotional and badass scenes to be coming in the next segment of "If Gods Were Lazy".


	8. IGWL Rewrite Announcement

Hello, my peeps! How you guys doing'? Good? No? Well...damn. Anyway! I decided that all of my previous chapters have several continuity errors and junk so...well...I'ma go back and pretty much spruce up the place. Maybe add a few new drapes, a better Covenant fight scene. Or a more understandable "transport" for Six's journey...Also, do any of you happen to know what a Forerunner stasis pod looks like? Nevermind. I'll see you guys again in a few weeks! Bye-bye now! Love you long time!


End file.
